Microsoft complaint to EU about Google

Microsoft have today voiced their concerns about Google in Europe. They’re unhappy with various Google “practices” including blocking access to parts of YouTube that Android phones can access…

“Google blocked Microsoft’s new Windows Phones from operating properly with YouTube. Google has enabled its own Android phones to access YouTube so that users can search for video categories, find favorites, see ratings, and so forth in the rich user interfaces offered by those phones. It’s done the same thing for the iPhones offered by Apple, which doesn’t offer a competing search service.

Microsoft has filed a formal complaint with European Union competition regulators over Google's dominance of the internet search market, escalating a debate that has already placed the online search group at the centre of an EU probe.

In its complaint, Microsoft alleges that Google is abusing its dominance of the search market in Europe, where it controls 95 per cent of the market, and that it is impeding fair competition.

the filing follows complaints by several other companies, including one owned by Microsoft, over what they claim are Google’s restrictive practices in the advertising and search markets.

Microsoft said the situation was more obvious in Europe, where Google dominates the search market, than in the US.

Mr Smith claimed that since acquiring YouTube, Google had put in place a number of measures to restrict competing search engines from properly accessing it for their results.

Microsoft also alleged that in 2010, and again more recently, Google had blocked Microsoft’s new Windows Phones from operating properly with YouTube.

He said that Google was restricting its advertising customers access to their own data. Microsoft also claimed that Google discriminates against would-be competitors by making it more expensive for them to obtain prominent advertising space on its site.

Microsoft also made reference to the ongoing debate over what it said were Google’s moves to block access to content owned by book publishers.

Google said that it was “not surprised” by Microsoft’s actions since one of their subsidiaries was one of the original complainants. “For our part, we continue to discuss the case with the European Commission and we’re happy to explain to anyone how our business works,” it said.

Last year Brussels launched an investigation into Google, following complaints from three companies. The EU is looking at whether Google gave preferential treatment to its own services when ranking results and whether its contractual relationships with advertisers may also have breached competition rules.

Last month 1plusV, a French company related to Ejustice.fr, one of three companies that originally filed complaints against Google, accused Google of abusing its dominant position in the online search market and blocking the development of rival search businesses.